Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Distract me, won't you, while the baby cries

Now comes the unfortunate part of motherhood...pissing your kid off for their own good. I'm sure in the future there will be lots of doors slammed and I HATE YOUs shrieked. Maybe even a couple of middle fingers thrust at my turned back. But for now there's just the crying from the pack n' play.

We'll see how long this lasts. But for now we're in sleep training mode. I'm conflicted. Part of me buys into the whole concept - the baby wants to stay up and play, but the baby needs sleep, so put the baby to bed and don't let her out. However, I also buy into the equal and opposite hippie concept: the baby needs love, and to feel validated, and so pick her up whenever she cries and don't make her sleep when she obviously just wants to love you.

I'm paraphrasing of course.

My goal is to get baby girl's naps consolidated. Right now, she wants to sleep for about 40 minutes of every other hour. This makes it quite difficult to get anything done. You know what else makes it hard to get anything done? Listening to a baby cry for 20 minutes.

I could use some vodka.

4 comments:

Layne said...

Be strong. Babies are way greedy and she will have you not sleeping at all if you let her.

Also I wanted to thank you for being funny. You're very reliable that way.

Mavis said...

I'm fine with napping off and on during the day.... but night time... no way. You'll just have to let her cry it out :(

Susan said...

I always thought I'd be a "cry-it-out" type of mom, but after having Hutch and reading this article, I just can't do it: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/04.09/ChildrenNeedTou.html

You're going to do what works best for you, though, lady...but in case you're looking for more research about crying it out and the affect it might have on her, I thought I'd send this to ya!

As for me, I don't want to have an anxious toddler or adolescent child. My mom let me cry it out and, now that she's told me she did, I am wondering if that's why I had issues with leaving her side in groceries stores and was just a generally insecure kid (and am now a pretty insecure adult)... Who knows? I'm sure there are lots of factors, but I just try to tell myself that I won't get to snuggle and comfort him for his whole life, so the 15-20 minutes here and there isn't going to kill me. And he won't be doing this forever. There will be a time when he's older and can verbalize and understand what I'm saying to him when I tell him that he needs to stay in bed and go to sleep.

Hope she gets more into a routine soon, though! I'm right there with you on the sleep deprivation. :-|

Susan said...

Here's another link to another study about crying it out and chemical imbalances in the brain:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/10/handout2.asp